Pamela, Juana, And Rufus Are Ready To Fight Puni In Atelier Meruru

Starting today, you can add a new area to Atelier Meruru: The Alchemist of Arland 3 with items to gather and gigantic monsters to fight. Makina is a freebie, but adding extra characters to your party costs 500 yen ($6.50) per character.

Juana, a shopkeeper in Atelier Meruru, can join Meruru’s quest with a boomerang in her hand.

Rufus is armed with a whip, but he uses his fists for some special attacks.

I’m so happy Pamela is finally playable in the Arland series! She’s actually super awesome in Mana-Khemia and I liked using her in Trinity Universe… So excited for the eventual English release. *A*

William Carpenter

$6.50? Ridiculously expensive. How much story content comes with each character? Not much I’m guessing.

SerendipityX

Yeah its expensive but at least Gust deserves the money more so than others.

malek86

That still doesn’t make it any easier to swallow.

I would be a little less annoyed if they at least told me that these were developed under their own separate budget. But considering that it’s only been a month since the game was released, I have trouble believing it. It feels more like they were purposely left out so we could pay for them.

Yeah. 6.50$ is quite a demand for just one character. Granted, characters are quite endearing, as far as my experience with Atelier Rorona goes. But as fun as characters, dialogue and scenes are, Gust has never been big on battles. Some characters have specialties that are just better for combat; for example, in Rorona, I ended up using Iksel for his healing and self-recovery, and Sterkenburg for his massive strength – not many other partner combinations match up to this effectiveness.

And for another, Atelier games are generally timed; once the period, usually three years, is over, you don’t get to lounge around to do whatever you want, which can include filling up your encyclopedia or trying to use other partners you didn’t try the first time. Although I don’t know if that’s the case with Atelier Meruru, the likelihood is high.

In short, I just don’t feel like there’ll be much use for them, given the game’s nature and light battle system. On the other hand, if each character DLC just adds not only the character, but also some scenes/events and even a character-specific ending, that might make the worth.

Who knows? I just might find them endearing enough to pay for once I get to play the game.

Rarutos

It’s probably going to be around 4 or 5 dollars when it comes over here really. The yen is just a lot stronger than the dollar right now, so of course it’d seem expensive. I’d buy them anyway because I’m a GUST fanboy though and want to support them however I can. :V

But I’m pretty happy to hear the DLC characters come with that stuff. I assume you mean for Totori at least? :)

Uh, I think you misunderstood. I don’t know if Character DLCs come with extra events and endings. I only meant that it’d be great if they did; adds more value to the purchase.

Rarutos

Oh oops, I guess I didn’t see the “if” there. My bad. :P Thanks for the clarification!

SeventhEvening

I agree, I’d want more story and events for that money. Although, Pamela is pretty endearing. I love Pamela already from her presence in the other titles, so I’d definitely pay for her anyway.

HarryHodd

Backgrounds in these shots look beautiful. Hopefully this new area comes west.

More characters is always nice.

DanteJones

I’ve been keeping away from videos and screenshots for the most part, but Juana is: :O
Though since shes part of the DLC I’m guessing she isn’t too involved in the story?

AzureNova

Nice!

Lexaus_the_Alchemist

I’m not sure how I feel about the whole “paid DLC character” practice that’s going on in the game industry today being applied to RPGs. And those ain’t cheap characters too…

Rihawf

DLC characters in RPGs are a rip-off. Not funny at all.

Ben Tan

gawddamn!!! pamela is hawt!!! she should get a pvc statue made >.<

SeventhEvening

I’d pay for Pamela because of her long history with Atelier, but I can’t imagine buying any others for that price. That’s pretty steep.

DaFool Visualnews

Actually I’d pay for anyone BUT her. Don’t know if they’ve upgraded her model but her (built-in) model for Trinity Universe was floaty and wonky.

SeventhEvening

Well, she was floaty because she’s a ghost. But the models are completely different, as is the graphical engine. Pamela has appeared in other Atelier games and her model looked good in Rorona (although she didn’t fight in that game)

this is so wrong on so many levels that is not even funny anymore.last gen we used to play a full game without paying extra and thanks for those ppl that bought “the horse armor” at the beginning of this one,they(the devs and publishers) have gone wild with this situation.what happened with the omakes? thats what DLC should be for…an extra thank you from the devs to their fans for purchasing said product.now not only we have insidious “dlc” ie:49.99 disgaea 3 dlc on psn but also the DRM practices of such companies like capcom and EA.yeah, the future of gaming is a bright one

oh btw, dont forget that most of this gen games are also 10-20 hrs long while last was 40-60 hrs.even in that department we have been screwed over!

Methylene

THEN… maybe you should… NOT buy it?

Seriously, DLC in this case, and in the Disgaea example you mentioned are mostly extra characters with oh… 30 seconds/a minute of exposition? Or if I’m reading right, are already in the game as NPC and this makes them playable. It’s a very minor addition, you do not HAVE to buy it if you hate the idea of DLC so much. It’s not like they’re holding a part of the game hostage from you, you buy extras that hold no importance in the game.

I cant believe some people are actually complaining about this and yet there are people who will support capcom’s DLC characters and paying for the same game over and over with content that are being purposely left out. How many versions of a game must you buy until you get the full game. I told things are going to get worse. People only have themselves and other blinded gamers to blame.

Guest

Here’s a thought, maybe the people complaining AREN’T the same people who buy CAPCOM’s constant rehashes. People are complaining precisely because they don’t want other companies to go that route.

XxDestinyXx

This game just keeps looking better and better to me.
If/when this comes to America, I will totally pick up a copy (LE if offered)!